SOCCER

FanDuel Premier League Trends to Know for Matchweek 9

Doug Smith  —  @DFresh39 Oct 16th, 2019
Chelsea have overcome their struggle at the beginning of the season moving back into the top five and coming into matchweek 9 as one of the trendiest teams.

The next Premier League main slate hits FanDuel at 10:00 a.m. EST on Saturday and features seven matches. This is on the heels of an international break that included friendlies, European Cup qualifying, and CONCACAF Nations League play.

There is more variety in terms of positioning across the table for the teams on the slate than there has been in recent weeks. Teams on the last two slates have mostly sat in the bottom half of the standings.

Matchweek 9
Saturday, October 19
Brighton at Aston Villa
Watford at Tottenham
Newcastle at Chelsea
Southampton at Wolves
Norwich City at Bournemouth
Burnley at Leicester City
Manchester City at Crystal Palace

Let's look at the teams and players that are rising and falling this week.

Hot

Team: Chelsea

Chelsea was letting everyone score goals early in the season. They now have their first clean sheet of the season and have won four straight across all competitions. They average under one goal per game allowed in that stretch. Manager Frank Lampard believes in youth despite a depleted squad that faces a transfer ban, has brought life to the team as he does not dwell on the obstacles faced. The youth movement has alienated Olivier Giroud ($14), but Tammy Abraham ($19) is tied for the league lead in goals. Chelsea are third in the league in total touches behind Manchester City and Liverpool showing they have controlled the ball very well. Chelsea are big favorites over Newcastle this weekend and should keep the momentum going.

Player: Adam Webster, Brighton ($10)

The Brighton defender has been incredibly consistent over his last three matches. Webster has scored between 17 and 20 points in each of those weeks. He has had at least three clearances and two interceptions in each of the last three weeks. Webster has also been more involved offensively creating at least one chance in these matches.

Webster has only made five appearances this season, but appears to have moved ahead on Shane Duffy ($12) on the depth chart. Webster has now been asked about his hopes to play for England in major competitions, but the focus now should be on his club team. However, his form for Brighton right now is great and they have a match against Aston Villa that is expected to be low scoring.

Cold

Team: Southampton

Southampton have been on the opposite trajectory of Chelsea in recent weeks as they have lost three in a row. They also have poor odds against Wolves this weekend. Southampton have scored a goal in each of the last three matches, but have lost all three by a combined score of 9-3. They have played Chelsea and Tottenham in back-to-back weeks, but they lost 3-1 to Bournemouth the previous week despite having over 60% of possession. They also had more possession against Tottenham while the loss to Chelsea was fairly lopsided for the Blues. No active player for Southampton averages over 20 FanDuel points per game. Wolves beat Southampton at home last season 2-0 and signs point to a third straight win for Wolverhampton.

Player: Kenny McLean, Norwich City ($12)

Including McLean may be null and void if he cannot get over a nagging injury that kept him off the Scotland squad for Euro qualifying. Regardless, he had three very poor matches after scoring a season-high 36.9 against Manchester City on September 14. The point total against City was padded by his only goal of the season, but McLean also had seven clearances. He has only had two clearances in the three games since mid-September. McLean has 13 defensive actions total against Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, and Burnley. He has created just one chance in that time span as well. Any momentum that McLean built after his outburst against City is now gone

Doug Smith is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Doug Smith also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username aquemini03. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.